40 Fun Facts About Horse Racing

By what margin did Secretariat win the 1973 Belmont Stakes, clocking a still-record 2:24?

Secretariat's 31 lengths beat the 25-length record Count Fleet had set in 1943, and that same week he became the first athlete on the covers of Time, Newsweek and Sports Illustrated together.

Which Louisville track, topped by twin spires since 1895, has hosted the Kentucky Derby since 1875?

Churchill Downs can hold roughly 170,000 people once the infield opens on Derby day, more than three times its usual seated crowd of 50,000.

Which Grand National fence is named for a captain unseated there in the first official race of 1839?

Becher's Brook is jumped twice, as the 6th and 22nd fence, and owes its notoriety to a landing side that once dropped 6 ft 9 in below the take-off, re-profiled to under a foot since 2011.

Which three-time Grand National winner, trained on Southport sands, is buried at Aintree's winning post?

Red Rum won in 1973, 1974 and 1977 and was runner-up in the two years between, and his name is simply the last three letters of his dam, Mared, and his sire, Quorum.

Which New Zealand-born 1930 Melbourne Cup winner has his hide, skeleton and heart in three museums?

Phar Lap's heart weighed 6.2 kg, nearly twice a normal horse's 3.2 kg, and sits in Canberra, while his hide is in Melbourne and his skeleton in Wellington.

Which Henry Cecil-trained colt retired unbeaten in 14 races with a record Timeform rating of 147?

Frankel was named after the late American trainer Bobby Frankel, and he was rated the best racehorse in the world from May 2011 until the day he retired.

Which Triple Crown winner did Seabiscuit beat in their 1938 'Match of the Century' at Pimlico?

War Admiral, the previous season's Horse of the Year, ran his best ever time for the distance and still lost, an upset that made Seabiscuit the number one newsmaker of 1938.

Which Baffert-trained colt ended a 37-year Triple Crown drought, then won the Breeders' Cup Classic?

American Pharoah's misspelt name was an inadvertent registration slip that became permanent, and his Classic win made him the first horse to complete racing's so-called Grand Slam.

Which jockey's seven winners from seven rides at Ascot in 1996 cost bookmakers an estimated £40 million?

Frankie Dettori's 'Magnificent Seven' came at combined odds of 25,095-1, and the flying dismount he celebrates with was taught to him in California by Angel Cordero Jr.

Which suffragette died after stepping in front of the King's horse Anmer at the 1913 Epsom Derby?

Emily Davison was carrying a return train ticket and a ticket to a suffragette dance that evening, which suggests she never intended to die under the horse.

Which record ten-length 1981 Epsom Derby winner was stolen by an armed gang in 1983 and never found?

Shergar's captors demanded a £2 million ransom in a plot a former IRA member later attributed to the organisation, and his remains are thought to lie near Ballinamore in County Leitrim.

Which Paris racecourse stages the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe, Europe's richest flat race, in October?

Longchamp sits in the Bois de Boulogne and has staged the Arc since its first running in 1920, bar 2016 and 2017 at Chantilly during a rebuild, with the 2,400-metre prize now worth €5 million.

Which racecourse, opened in 2010 with a grandstand holding 60,000, hosts the Dubai World Cup?

Meydan replaced Nad Al Sheba on the same site, and its grandstand holds 60,000 people and contains The Meydan, billed as the world's first five-star trackside hotel.

Which chaser won three straight Cheltenham Gold Cups from 1964 and holds a record Timeform rating of 212?

Arkle's 212 is the highest mark Timeform has ever given a steeplechaser, and fan mail addressed to nothing more than his name and his country still reached his yard.

Which California track, opened in 1938 under Jack L. Warner, hosted the first Breeders' Cup in 1984?

Hollywood Park ran its last race in December 2013 after 75 years, and SoFi Stadium, home of the NFL's Rams and Chargers, now stands on the site.

Which bet, launched at Arlington Park in 1971, pays only if you name the first three home in exact order?

The trifecta fuses 'tri-' with the older perfecta, a bet on the first two in order, and punters can 'box' it to cover all six finishing orders of three horses.

Which monarch founded Ascot in 1711 on open heath spotted while out riding from Windsor Castle?

Queen Anne judged the heath 'ideal for horses to gallop at full stretch', and the Royal Meeting each June still draws more than 350,000 spectators to the course six miles from the castle.

Which mare won three straight Melbourne Cups from 2003, the only horse to win the race more than twice?

Makybe Diva honours Maureen, Kylie, Belinda, Diane and Vanessa, who worked for her owner Tony Santic, and she was bred in Britain before being trained in Australia.

Which 100/1 shot won the 1967 Grand National after a pile-up at the 23rd fence, now named after him?

Foinavon's jockey John Buckingham had never ridden in the race before, and neither the owner nor the trainer bothered to attend, the trainer having gone to ride at Worcester instead.

Which Queen Mother-owned horse collapsed 40 yards from the post while leading the 1956 Grand National?

Devon Loch was ridden by Dick Francis, who went on to write more than 40 bestselling thrillers, and 'to do a Devon Loch' is still shorthand for a collapse on the brink of victory.

Which jockey, diagnosed with testicular cancer in 1979, won the 1981 Grand National on Aldaniti?

Bob Champion's recovery and win became the 1984 film Champions, with John Hurt in the lead, and the Bob Champion Cancer Trust he founded in 1983 has raised millions for research.

On which day is the Melbourne Cup, a public holiday across much of Victoria since 1876, always run?

The first Tuesday in November sees the race start at 3 pm, when the country pauses for the 3,200-metre handicap billed as 'the race that stops a nation'.

Which Thoroughbred foundation stallion was ridden by his captain-owner at the 1690 Battle of the Boyne?

The Byerley Turk was Captain Robert Byerley's war horse in King William's campaign of 1689-90, and his male line survives today through the 18th-century leading sire Herod.

Which unbeaten 1760s racehorse, winner of all 18 of his starts, tops most Thoroughbred pedigrees?

Eclipse won all 18 of his races, reputedly without ever being fully extended, and his skeleton is kept at the Royal Veterinary College, which named a learning centre after him.

Which Australian mare retired unbeaten in 25 starts, including a 2012 Royal Ascot win by a head?

Black Caviar's jockey Luke Nolen eased up too early at Ascot and barely held on, later admitting it was 'an error that every apprentice is taught not to do'.

A blanket of 554 of which flower is awarded to the Kentucky Derby winner, giving the race its nickname?

Roses earned the race its 'Run for the Roses' tag, and the blanket goes each year to a winner that, being a three-year-old, gets only one shot at it.

Which jockey, with 8,833 career wins, became the oldest Kentucky Derby winner at 54 aboard Ferdinand?

Bill Shoemaker weighed about 1 lb 13 oz at birth and, family legend says, was kept alive in a shoebox by the stove, yet his win total stood as a world record when he retired.

Which jockey lost his first 45 races yet rode two US Triple Crown winners, Whirlaway and Citation?

Eddie Arcaro also won the Kentucky Derby five times, a record later equalled, and fellow riders simply called him 'the Master' for setting the standard in race riding.

Which jockey, Triple Crown winner on Affirmed at 18, moved to Britain and twice won the Epsom Derby?

Steve Cauthen became the first jockey to win both the Kentucky Derby and the Epsom Derby, taking the latter on Slip Anchor in 1985 and Reference Point in 1987, and topped the British jockeys' table three times.

Which jockey, nicknamed 'the Long Fellow' for his height, won the Epsom Derby a record nine times?

Lester Piggott stood 5 ft 7 in, tall for a flat jockey, served 366 days in prison for tax fraud, and came back at 54 to win the Breeders' Cup Mile within ten days of his return.

Which jump jockey, top rider in all 20 of his seasons, was the first jockey named BBC Sports Personality?

Tony McCoy rode a record 4,358 winners, topped the table in every season he rode as a professional, and needed 15 attempts to win the Grand National, on Don't Push It in 2010.

Which city's Happy Valley racecourse, first built in 1845, holds its meetings on Wednesday nights?

Hong Kong's Happy Valley, one of two tracks run by the Hong Kong Jockey Club alongside Sha Tin, saw at least 590 people die in 1918 when a collapsing stand set fire to bamboo matting.

Which Italian city's twice-yearly Palio is ridden bareback for three laps of its main piazza?

Siena's Palio pits ten of the city's seventeen contrade, or wards, against each other on 2 July and 16 August, and a horse that loses its rider can still win the race.

Which mare won the 1878 Goodwood Cup on her way to retiring unbeaten after 54 races?

Kincsem means 'my treasure' in Hungarian, and her 54 wins from 54 starts between 1876 and 1879 give her the longest unbeaten record of any racehorse.

Which colt, beaten only once in 21 starts, lost at Saratoga in 1919 to a rival aptly named Upset?

Man o' War never ran in the Kentucky Derby because his owner distrusted the ten-furlong distance, and the idea that the race coined 'upset' for a shock result is a myth; the word was decades old.

On which date do all Northern Hemisphere Thoroughbreds officially age a year, whatever their real birthday?

1 January is the shared birthday in the north, while Southern Hemisphere Thoroughbreds all turn a year older on 1 August, so a foal born in late December is officially a yearling days later.

The furlong, eight to a mile and still used for race distances, was originally the length of what?

A ploughed furrow, specifically the distance a team of oxen could plough without resting, gave the furlong its name, from the Old English furh and lang, 'furrow long'.

Which American breed, the world's most registered, has been clocked at 44 mph over short sprints?

The Quarter Horse can outrun other breeds over a quarter mile or less, hitting 44 mph, and the American Quarter Horse Association had almost three million living horses registered in 2014.

Which bourbon cocktail, served 120,000 times over two days, is the Kentucky Derby's traditional drink?

The mint julep has been promoted with the Derby since 1938, and since 2006 the track has also sold a $1,000 version of it, made with Woodford Reserve, in a gold-plated cup with a silver straw.

Which songwriter's 'My Old Kentucky Home' has accompanied the Kentucky Derby post parade since the 1930s?

Stephen Foster published the ballad in 1853, and Kentucky later made it the state song, swapping the word 'darkies' for 'people' in 1986 after a Japanese school choir sang the original lyric to the legislature.